How can I make focus indicators easier to see when using a keyboard?

If you’re using a Mac, try its Full Keyboard Access feature. Apple documents a highlight for the screen item currently focused during keyboard navigation, and says you can customize the highlight’s color, contrast, and size. Find it in System Settings > Accessibility > Motor > Keyboard, then turn on Full Keyboard Access. [S1]

Start with the options available there rather than changing several things at once. For instance, if the highlight blends into a pale background, try a color or contrast that is easier for you to distinguish; if it is hard to notice at a glance, try a larger appearance. Those are suggestions for testing, not a guarantee that one setting will work for every person or screen.

Use Tab to move focus forward and Shift-Tab to move it backward, and watch which screen item is highlighted. [S1] Try this in a place with several different controls, such as a page or window containing buttons and fields. Pause on each item long enough to identify it, then continue moving. Notice whether you can tell both that focus moved and which item now has it.

A useful small test is to look away briefly between moves, then look back and identify the highlighted item. If you cannot spot it promptly, return to the appearance options and adjust one setting. Repeat the same navigation path so you can compare the result rather than relying on memory.

Treat each app or screen as a separate check. Apple’s description explains how to customize the highlight for macOS Full Keyboard Access, but it does not establish that every app uses that appearance or that the setting changes an app’s own focus styling. [S1] So if the indicator looks different elsewhere, do not assume you missed a system setting or that the same adjustment will control that app.

You can still record where focus is difficult to see and what you observed. For example: “In [app or screen], pressing Tab moves to [control], but I can’t readily distinguish the focused control from nearby items.” If you need help with that app, this concrete description gives its support team or accessibility contact a clear starting point without claiming a cause.

Use this repeatable check:

1. Turn on Full Keyboard Access and choose a highlight appearance to try.
2. Open a screen you use often and identify a short route through its controls.
3. Press Tab, then Shift-Tab, watching for the focused item each time.
4. Note any control where the highlight is hard to distinguish; change one appearance option and repeat the route.
5. Check another app or screen separately, because the documented Mac controls do not establish consistent styling across every app. [S1]

Copyable observation: “Screen: [name]. Route: [starting item] → [next item] → [next item]. Hard-to-see focus: [item or none]. Change tested: [color, contrast, or size]. Result: [what I could see].” Keep the note descriptive: it records what you observed, not why an app behaves that way.